


Hurt

by thorkified



Series: The Cultleader And His Boy [7]
Category: Bad Times at the El Royale (2018), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Accidents, Broken Bones, Caretaking, Cultleader!Thor, Fluff and Angst, Injury, M/M, Underage - Freeform, Worry, kid!loki
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-04
Updated: 2019-03-04
Packaged: 2019-11-09 07:24:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17997449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thorkified/pseuds/thorkified
Summary: Thor can always be sure Loki comes over when he says he will. When his boy fails to do so one evening and Thor can't find him anywhere, however, he is worried sick. What happened to Loki? Why didn't he show up as he promised?





	Hurt

Loki often plays with the other kids in the woods near their commune, simply because he has a lot of energy and loves running around, especially when they play hide-and-seek or tag. Given that Thor is busy very often and he can’t really bother him all the time, he uses the other kids for distraction the best he can. He slowly makes friends with some of them, mainly with Peter because he’s about his age - a year younger, but Loki likes him - and sometimes they play alone too when the others don’t want to.

One day, however, even Peter doesn’t have time to play because his mother wants to take him to town, so Loki is all by himself when he goes into the woods to play. He doesn’t really mind because he knows the place like the back of his hand, but it’s quickly getting boring all alone, without anyone around. Which, ultimately, leads to Loki just aimlessly walking around, hitting trees with a big stick he collected and uses as a sword, until he comes to a part of the woods he hasn’t been in before.

It’s pretty interesting for a while, especially because he finds an abandoned rabbit hole that he finds fascinating. He once found a rabbit when he was in the other part of the woods with Peter and they had fed it a carrot, which was really nice. Peter likes rabbits and is a little sad that the hole is empty. Eventually, Loki shrugs and decides to see if he can find a different one that isn’t and wanders deeper into the forest. It’s late in the afternoon already and he should probably go back, but he doesn’t want to sit around at home or in front of Thor’s house. The man won’t be back until nine or ten in the evening, which is still so long that Loki needs to occupy himself differently.

An hour later, Loki finds a tree that lays across his way and decides to climb it. It’s a big one that was probably thrown over by the storm they had a few weeks ago, the roots are all out of the earth and it looks really cool. Luckily, Loki is very acrobatic and easily makes it on top of the stock and balances over it, even makes a few jumps, one almost making him fall, but he can catch himself the last second. 

Loki is about to hop off the tree again to finally get home, when he suddenly hears something like a growl and freezes in place. He carefully turns around, hoping that he didn’t run across a wolf or anything like that. What he finds instead is a boar and it doesn’t look happy. Loki slowly lays down on the stock and holds onto it, his eyes not leaving the boar for a second. He knows these animals can climb trees, but he begs that this one will just go away again and leave him alone.

The boar refuses to move for over ten minutes, scraping the ground, huffing and grunting. By the time it finally turns around, Loki is close to tears just from the intense fear of it going to attack. With wide eyes, the boy watches the animal retreat and he can feel the tension leave his body as soon as it’s out of sight. As careful and quiet as he can, Loki shoves himself off the stock, now wanting to go home as fast as possible. This adventure is anything but fun and he is scared, he wants to go back.

With tears still in his eyes, Loki starts stumbling away from the tree, hoping to go back the way he had come. His steps fasten soon and he’s actually crying, unable to stop it. He feels so dumb for crying and for still being so scared and tries to not think about it by starting to run, which turns out to be a huge mistake.

Loki can barely see where he’s going due to his tears and when be comes across the empty rabbit hole he found earlier he doesn’t notice it, causing him to step right into it. He’s falling and yelping before he even knows what’s going on and then he hears it, hears this disgusting and awful sound. Something is breaking. For a second, Loki doesn’t feel anything, even thinks it was just a twig he stepped onto. Then, he hits the ground and the pain is there - sharp and agonizing and so intense, the boy wails desperately.

Immediately, Loki grabs his leg and pulls, which only intensifies the pain and makes him scream again, hot tears rolling down his face. He manages to look at his leg and sees it twisted so much, his stomach actually clenches. When he finally gets his foot out of the hole, Loki is sobbing and everything hurts and he can’t even look at it, knowing that whatever he sees will make him throw up.

There is only one thought in the boy, one thing that goes deeper than the pain, and that’s Thor. He needs Thor now, he needs him to come and take him home. When he cries out the man’s name, his voice echoes back from the trees around him, but that’s the only answer he gets. The only answer he gets for a long, long time while he’s left alone in the woods, crying from his pain and fear and with the light around him slowly disappearing.

\-----

For the whole day, all Thor could think about was finally coming back home and seeing Loki. His boy had promised to come by once he was back and that was what got him through the annoying and stressful duties he had to fulfill. When Thor finally comes back, though, Loki isn’t there. Usually, Loki waits for him in front of his house, happily jumping up and running towards him when he approaches. This time, however, no one is waiting for him and that confuses Thor greatly.

He decides to take a shower and then go check on Loki to see if the boy just forgot, but when he arrives at his house half an hour later - it’s already getting dark at this point - his surrogate mother informs him that Loki didn’t come back from playing yet. Thor frowns at that, trying to ignore the pit in his stomach. He thanks her and walks over to Peter’s place, knowing that the two boys often play together, but Peter’s mother tells him that they didn’t that day, that they just came back themselves from their trip to town.

Thor actually starts to worry now, which doesn’t happen often. If Loki isn’t home and wasn’t with Peter, where is he? The boy always comes over when he says he will, he has never been late or missed showing up, so what happened?

It takes another half hour before Thor is close to panicking. Loki isn’t with any of his friends, he’s not at the beach and he’s not anywhere around the commune either. The kid is simply gone. Thor is completely out of himself when he knocks on his friend Fandral’s door, almost frantically and not stopping until the door is opened.

“My God, Thor,” Fandral gasps, his expression immediately turning from annoyance to worry. “What happened?”

“Loki!” Thor almost yells, grabbing Fandral’s wrist tight. His eyes are wide and his grip is like an iron wrench, almost painful. “He’s gone! I can’t find him anywhere and he didn’t come over like he promised!” 

“Calm down, man, he has to be somewhere,” Fandral tries to soothe his friend and puts a hand on his shoulder. “Do you know what he was doing today? Who he was with?”

Thor shakes his head, swallowing hard. “Peter’s mother said he came over to play with the boy, but they went to town and Loki left alone. I have no idea where he went!”

“They play in the woods pretty often,” Fandral says, thinking. “Maybe he went alone today and forgot the time?”

“But it’s dark already!” Thor shakes his head violently. “Loki wouldn’t stay out this long! He knew I’d come back, he promised to come over!”

As much as Fandral disapproves of whatever is going on between Thor and Loki, he can’t stand the panic in his friend’s voice or how completely devastated and scared he looks. He squeezes Thor’s shoulder gently, sighing.

“We can go look for him there if you want to?” he suggests, hoping that nothing bad happened to the kid. Thor would lose his mind in that case, he knows it. “You checked everywhere else, right?”

“Of course I did!” Thor groans and runs a hand through his hair. “What is he got lost? What… what if he’s hurt? What if he di-”

“Stop that right now!” Fandral says firmly and shakes his head. “He’s alive, okay? I’ll go get some flashlights and we will look for him. You’ll see, he probably just forgot the time while running around or climbing trees or whatever. You know how he is.”

Thor nods and looks at Fandral with almost wild eyes. “Hurry, please!” he begs him. “If he’s hurt… God, I don’t even want to think about it, please just  _ hurry _ !”

Fandral does and comes back only two minutes later with two big flashlights, handing one of them to Thor. “We will find him, I’m sure of that,” he assures him once more before they wet out to check the woods Loki so often plays in with the other kids.

As soon as they step in between the trees, Thor calls out for Loki. He hopes against all hope that the boy will answer, but there is nothing but silence and it makes his heart ache. He doesn’t wait for Fandral when he starts running deeper into the woods, driven by fear and worry and, yes, by panic too. He’s freaking out, he can feel it. He needs to find Loki, he needs to find his boy.

“LOKI!”

His voice comes back, echoing but without a response and after a few minutes of this, he can actually feel tears build up in his eyes. Loki has to be here somewhere, he just has to be! Thor searched everywhere else, this is the last place left.

Ten minutes later, Thor lost track of Fandral and can’t even see the light coming from him anymore, but he doesn’t stop and he doesn’t look for him either. He’s just going forward, calling out Loki’s name, shining his flashlight wherever he can, but never finding anything but trees and dirt. He’s going to lose his mind if he can’t find Loki, he just knows it.

Thor is about to break down crying when he suddenly hears something. It’s quiet, barely audible, but it was a voice, or not?

“Loki?” he calls out as loud as he can, desperation making his voice shake. “Loki, are you here?”

For a moment, the air around him is silent. And then he hears it again, almost a whisper, but definitely a voice. And it’s calling his name. Thor’s heart sinks in his chest and he wipes the tears out of his eyes.

“Loki, I’m here!” he shouts, moving into the direction he thinks the voice came from. “Talk to me! Shout! I can’t find you otherwise, keep talking!”

“Thor!” 

Loki’s voice. It’s definitely Loki’s voice and Thor is heading into the right direction. He starts running, relieved and barely watching his steps.

“I’m here, Loki! I’m coming, I promise!”

“It hurts, Thor…” Loki’s voice comes from the distance again and the words have Thor’s blood run cold. His voice is shaking and he sounds scared, which only makes him run faster.

“I’ll come and get you, Loki, I promise!” Thor shouts and hopes that whatever happened isn’t too bad. “I’ll take you home, okay? Just keep talking to me so I can find you!”

“I wanna go home,” Loki says, almost sobs. His voice is torturously close now, Thor knows he can’t be far away anymore. “Don’t be mad, please. I’m sorry I didn’t come back…”

“I’m not mad, Loki,” Thor says and shakes his head, slowing down his steps to not accidentally walk past the boy. “It’s okay now, I’ll find you. It’s all good.”

Suddenly, Thor hears a sob and he nearly sobs himself at how close it is. He shines his flashlight in front of him again and then he sees it. His heart nearly drops at finding Loki on the ground, crying and so utterly pale, and he runs up to him as fast as he can, dropping to his knees next to him.

“Loki, baby,” Thor whispers as he pulls the boy into his arms, so insanely relieved to find him alive. “I’m here now, I got you. It’s okay, I’ll take you home.”

Loki clings to him weakly, sniffing and burying his face against Thor’s chest.

“I’m sorry, Thor,” he sobs quietly. “I didn’t mean to worry you, I’m s-sorry…”

“Shh, stop apologizing,” Thor says with a gentle voice and brushes a hand through Loki’s hair. “I’m not mad, I’m just glad you’re okay. What happened?”

“I… I saw a boar and… and I was so scared,” Loki sniffs, digging his fingers deep into the fabric of Thor’s shirt. “I wanted to go home and ran and… I didn’t see the hole…”

Thor swallows and looks down Loki’s body, using the light to reveal the damage. Oh, his sweet, brave little boy… It’s so obvious that his ankle is broken, it breaks Thor’s heart too.

“We will fix this, I promise,” Thor says with a heavy voice and presses a kiss onto Loki’s hair. “I’ll take you home, okay? I’ll take care of you.”

Loki sniffs again and nods, still holding onto Thor when the man shifts to give him the flashlight and then pushes an arm under his knees and shoulders to lift him up. He wraps an arm around Thor’s neck to hold himself steady when Thor kisses his cheek.

“Can you light us the way, sweetheart?” Thor asks, shifting Loki slightly so he can hold him better. The boy nods and wipes his tears away with the hand that holds the flashlight. “Good boy,” Thor praises and kisses his head again. “It’s all good now, I promise.”

The way back is slower, but Thor doesn’t dare risk anything with Loki in his arms. The boy keeps holding onto him and shines the light so Thor can see where he’s going, sniffing from time to time but otherwise staying quiet. Still, Thor can feel his body shaking and he knows his boy must be in a lot of pain.

Twenty minutes after finding Loki, Thor sees another light in the distance and sighs relieved.

“Fan, I got him!” he calls out, holding Loki tight so the boy won’t startle. The light starts moving into their direction and Thor walks towards it, meeting his friend a few minutes later.

“Shit, what happened?” Fandral asks and gulps when he sees Thor shake his head.

“We’ll have to see what the doc says, but I think he broke his ankle,” Thor sighs, gently squeezing Loki. The doc, Stephen, arrived a few weeks prior, and now Thor is very glad about it because otherwise he would have to drive Loki to the hospital in town and that’s over an hour away.  “I’m gonna take him home, can you go see if he’s still awake and tell him to come over? If he sleeps, just bang on his door until he wakes up or break in, I don’t care.”

Fandral nods and walks in front of them as they leave, faster than Thor, but it doesn’t matter. Thor makes sure that Loki isn’t hurt even more and it will take some time to get the doc anyway, it’s fine.

When they finally arrive at Thor’s place, Loki started sobbing again and not even Thor gently rubbing his shoulder helps anything. He kisses the boy’s head gently as he carries him upstairs and puts him down on his bed, Loki refusing to let go of him.

“It’s okay, baby, we’re home now. You’re safe,” Thor assures him, kissing his cheek before gently unwrapping Loki’s arm from his neck. “Fandral is going to get the doctor, okay? He will have a look at your leg.”

“Don’t go away, please,” Loki sniffs and that alone has Thor’s heart break all over again. His sweet boy is so scared and he can’t blame him. God, he wishes he wouldn’t have wasted so much time!

“I won’t go anywhere, I left the door open so I won’t have to let the doctor in,” he says quietly, sitting down next to Loki. The boy immediately rolls over and lays his head on his lap, which makes Thor brush his fingers through his hair in a soothing motion. “It will all be okay, baby, I promise…”

Stephen arrives ten minutes later and after checking on Loki confirms Thor’s assumption. It’s indeed a broken ankle, news that make Loki cry silently against Thor’s thigh.

“Can you fix it here?” Thor asks, still brushing his hand through Loki’s hair to calm him.

“I’m afraid not,” Stephen sighs and shakes his head. “I can stabilize it for now, but he needs to get an x-ray and I can’t do that here. If the ankle heals wrong it will only get worse.

Thor sighs but nods anyway. “I’ll take him to the hospital first thing in the morning then,” he says.

Stephen nods again and bandages Loki’s ankle so that there won’t be any more damage throughout the night. He leaves Thor some painkillers and instructions on how much Loki can safely take before leaving again.

Loki is scared even when Thor promises him to stay the night and it takes some convincing for him to actually take the painkillers, but once he did and they started working, he calms down enough so Thor can actually put him to sleep. Thor himself barely sleeps, too worried that Loki might turn in his sleep and hurt himself again to find much rest.

The next morning, as soon as Loki woke up, Thor makes him eat something for breakfast and then takes him to the hospital as promised. He stays with the scared boy during the whole procedure of getting his x-ray and of the doctor putting his ankle and lower leg into a cast, all the while assuring him that he would be okay and that he would take care of him.

When they are back home, Thor only leaves Loki long enough to tell his surrogate mother what happened and that Loki will stay with him for the next couple of weeks so he can look after him. She looks relieved about his worry and help and especially about his offer, given she is working in town and can’t watch over the boy the whole day. Thor takes some of Loki’s belongings with him, mostly clothes and his toothbrush and some books before returning to the boy, who’s already waiting desperately for him to come back.

Thor wouldn’t leave Loki in anyone else’s care after this traumatizing accident, not with how clingy and scared his boy still is. And he doesn’t mind taking care of him, not at all. In fact, Thor is glad that he can spend so much time with Loki and make sure he recovers fully.

Loki is anything but against this arrangement and as soon as Thor allows him to get out of bed again - around a week after the accident and only with crutches and with Thor carrying him downstairs and back up - he almost forgets that he’s hurt entirely. He gets used to the crutches quickly and Thor helps him whenever he can, which includes washing him during bathtime and helping him get dressed, but Loki doesn’t mind at all and Thor surely doesn’t either.

Thor, on the other hand, doesn’t forget that Loki is hurt and does everything he can to make sure his ankle heals and that he doesn’t put any pressure on it. During the day he allows Loki to help him with cooking - Loki sits on a chair and cuts things, which he really enjoys - and in the evening they watch movies or play cards and at night, Thor holds his boy as close as possible, something Loki truly loves.

It’s almost a sad day when they drive back to the hospital six weeks later and Loki’s cast is removed. The boy actually cries on the way back. Even though he still needs to be careful, the doctor said he can walk again, which Loki knows means he has to go back home now. Thor assures him that he can still come by whenever he wants to, even if he’s not home and that nothing has to change if Loki doesn’t want it.

“You’re my sweet boy, aren’t you?” he asks when they are back at his house, sitting on his couch with Loki in his lap. “You know I’m always so happy to have you with me.”

Loki sighs and wraps his arms around Thor, burying his face against the crook of his neck.

“It was so nice living with you,” he whispers sadly. “I wish I could stay here forever.”

“This is your home as much as you want it to be, baby,” Thor says with a smile, kissing Loki’s head. “As long as you want to come here, you are always welcome. But I prefer you healthy and without broken bones.”

“I’ll always want to he here,” Loki promises, kissing Thor’s neck softly. “You’re still mine, right?”

“Of course I am, sweetheart,” Thor chuckles, ruffling Loki’s hair. “As much as you are mine, I promised you that. I’ll always be yours.”

He will never not want Loki around and after those weeks, Thor just knows he will come over much more often. They have grown closer during this time, especially emotionally and it feels good, it feels right. That doesn’t mean he wants to stop Loki from enjoying his childhood, but it’s clear that Loki doesn’t want things to change and he isn’t going to force this onto him. That Loki is happy is Thor’s top priority. If being with him makes him happy, that’s exactly what he will give him. Loki is his world and he will make sure to give him anything he needs.


End file.
